Sunday, April 24, 2016

Embedded #Whiteness: A Legacy of Brutality

[This is the last installment of a three part series on Whiteness.]

Whiteness is a concept that describes the
cultural, lingual, institutional beliefs, practices and behavior that maintains
access to power and reinforces power for White people and people of lighter
skin tones. This colonial system was created for and by Europeans for the
benefit of Europeans. Everything was in relation to the European--this is
a hallmark of the concept of Whiteness--that everything is judged in relation
to Whiteness and not something else.

Whiteness is embedded in the fabric of everyday life in the US

The use of patrols to capture runaway slaves was
one of the precursors of formal police forces, especially in the South.

Slave patrols were organized groups of three to
six white men who enforced discipline upon black slaves during the antebellum
U.S. southern states.

The police are still seen by many people to be
racial enforcers, they are seen as the colonial strong arm in black and brown
neighborhoods--they are most often occupiers--not public servants.

Mistreatment, beatings, rapes, robbing, bribe demands
and other behavior is expected by many communities of color when they encounter
the police.

I worry that I will be pulled over and shot by a
police officer on my daily commute far more than

Famous image of African American flood victims lined up to get food & clothing fr. Red Cross relief station in front of billboard ironically extolling WORLD'S HIGHEST STANDARD OF LIVING/ THERE'S NO WAY LIKE THE AMERICAN WAY. Location: Louisville, KY, US Date taken: February 1937 Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White

African Americans have never been accepted as White.

They have been ostracized from the American Way of life for
the most part.

They are colonized subjects within the colony.

Segregation, lack of educational resources, lack of opportunities
are all hallmarks of being Black in the US.

It behooves those who don’t want these hallmarks to adhere to
Whiteness as much as possible. We see this exemplified in too many POC
who have achieved ‘success’ in this society.

This is a screenshot I took from an article on Slate.

What is the implicit message here?

How does it relate to the previous image?

South Bronx 1970’s/slaves quarters, Colbert Co. AL

Things don’t change much in a society based on Whiteness.

Please think about these images for a moment.

Baltimore or Saskatoon

Contemporary racial disparity based on Whiteness in
Baltimore on the left.

Contemporary racial disparity based on Whiteness in Saskatoon on
the right.

Please think about these images for a moment.

This is how Black and brown kids are often treated at school.

Our kids are ‘over disciplined’ from an early age--sometimes from
preschool on…

2 comments:

Great article/essay. You're opening an incredible conversation about the dominant cultural concept or Whiteness, colonialism and racism. I'm hearing more and more discussions about this.Keep the fight.